A Japanese porn actress who attempted to pour oil on the troubled waters of the East China Sea - using social media to plead for calm over China and Japan's dispute over the Senkaku, or Diaoyu Islands - has been the subject of a furious backlash.

Sola Aoi, who describes herself as a Japanese actress, but who has modelled nude and appeared in adult videos, posted two images in Chinese on her Sina Weibo account, China's equivalent of Twitter, to her 13 million followers.

But she is now the latest Japanese "brand" to find herself subject to a boycott by China.

Sola Aoi received a backlash when she tweeted a pro-peace message to Chinese and Japanese followers

Thousands of protesters shouted patriotic slogans and demanded boycotts of Japanese goods outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

The dispute is over ownership of uninhabited East China Sea islands called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, after the Japanese government said it was purchasing some of the islands from their private owner to thwart a Japanese politician's plans to buy and develop them.

China has sent patrol ships to the waters around the island, which Tokyo has administered since 1972.

A Chinese man shouts anti-Japan slogans with Chinese national flags near portraits of the late Communist leader Mao Zedong in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing

She commented: “I hope there are good relations between we common people … I am here in the same world as you. Hurt…”

Aoi's tweet, though well intentioned, hit a raw nerve.

According to the blog Tea Leaf Nation, which comments on social media in China, the image posted was retweeted over 120,000 times and received over 130,000 comments, and "Sola Aoi" was the top trending topic on the site, far outstripping the name of the disputed “Diaoyu Islands.”

Many called her a "Japanese dog", criticised her grasp of Chinese and also targeted her for writing "Japanese-Chinese friendship", instead of "Chinese-Japanese friendship".

Dutifully, Sola reposted her picture, with the word "Chinese" first.

Sola is a megastar in Asia, but users of the site accused her of being "a spy".

But for some, petty territorial disputes could not come between them and the pretty pornstar, with one cheekily posting on Weibo: "Who the Diaoyu Islands belong to is not important, as long as Sola Aoi remains on my hard disk."